Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The candidates answer questions..............

This one about the CE (s)election again - directly copied from SCMP (including a nice picture). In this moment still Regina Ip was trying to participate - but she did not get enough support.quoteSCMP debate
South China Morning Post
Feb 27, 2012
Amid all the uproar over "underground palaces", alleged conflicts of interest and rumoured love affairs, the three officially nominated candidates and one unofficial candidate seem to have lost sight of the real issues that affect Hongkongers - education, pollution, the economy. As yet, there has not been a single debate among them over their goals, policies and programmes. To remedy this, we have asked them to answer six questions. We gave them three days to respond and a limit of 1,200 words, roughly 200 words per question. Here is how they responded. We informed them in advance that, should they not respond, we would leave their space blank.
Q1 What will be your top priority, the first thing you will do, on Day 1 of your becoming chief executive.
Q2 Will you continue to offer financial support for the English Schools Foundation? And what will be your policy concerning the expansion of international schools?

Q3 Pollution hurts everyone in Hong Kong and the city's measurement of air quality is outdated and flawed. Will you adopt the toughest air quality standards set by the WHO? And how will you achieve those standards and reduce roadside pollution in Hong Kong?
Q4 How will you solve Hong Kong's chronic shortage of land for housing and development, through reclamation, redevelopment or rezoning within the country parks?
Q5 Hong Kong's fiscal reserves are massive. How much is truly necessary and what innovative ideas do you have for the excess reserves?
Q6 The people of Hong Kong have been promised universal suffrage in the chief executive election in 2017 at the earliest. What is your plan to open up the nomination process fairly to all candidates and when do you plan to eliminate the functional constituency seats in the Legislative Council?

Albert Ho Chun-yan
A1 In the event I am elected chief executive I would do the following on my first day in office:
Put in place a system to ensure timely access to all important information, documents and parties
Meet with all policy secretaries, Executive Council members and leaders of all major political parties to ensure accessibility to these individuals for discussion on important matters;
Formulate broad timelines for -
My political agenda for implementing a democratic, accountable government;
My social equity agenda for alleviating poverty and making improvements on the environment,
housing, education and medical services.

Put on my desk a written reminder in respect of my duty to serve the public with honesty, accountability and transparency, as well as with courage and commitment.
Check my conflict-of-interest disclosure form is fully and accurately completed.

A2 Given the need for Hong Kong to attract foreign investment, both English Schools Foundation (ESF) and international schools play an important role in ensuring the provision of school places for the expatriate community.
I would continue to offer financial support for the ESF by adopting the Direct Subsidy Scheme model. Given that public money is involved, the ESF should be subject to monitoring by the administration regardless of the level of subvention. To ensure proper financial management, an effective monitoring mechanism should be put in place. In order to provide for the setting up of an effective monitoring mechanism, government may consider amending the ESF Ordinance (Cap. 1117) if necessary.